


Entrapta Week Mini-Stories

by CountDorku



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Autistic Adora (She-Ra), Autistic Entrapta (She-Ra), Birthday, Birthday Cake, Birthday Party, Birthday Presents, Canon Autistic Character, Entrapta Week, Female Friendship, Forgiveness, Gen, MST3K References, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Prompt Fic, Science, Some Humor, Tumblr Prompt, indirect Rise of Skywalker salt, take that JJ Abrams, y'all allosexuals apparently have some wild birthdays based on these tag suggestions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:14:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22329169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CountDorku/pseuds/CountDorku
Summary: A few short stories written to commemorate Entrapta Week 2020.I unfortunately didn't have anything I could really use for "Masks" or "Imperfection" but I have stuff for the other five. Some of them are...I think I can safely say that nobody else is going to have written them (whether you read that as a good or bad thing is up to you).
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora & Bow (She-Ra), Adora & Entrapta (She-Ra), Bow & Entrapta (She-Ra), Catra & Entrapta (She-Ra), Double Trouble & Entrapta (She-Ra), Entrapta & Glimmer (She-Ra), Entrapta & Hordak (She-Ra), Entrapta & Scorpia (She-Ra), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 20
Kudos: 80





	1. Friendship - Gears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapta gives Adora a little help managing her stress.
> 
> Not that kind of help. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Adora’s eyes flicked around the room as her brain made a noise like gears grinding against each other. She liked parties, really, but this one…so many people, so much noise, even Princess Prom had been less stressful. And the music was awful, and she could barely hear anyone speaking, and she was just. Not. Having a good time.

She paused on the edge of the crowd to take a breather, when she heard a sound above her. She stepped back, instinctively reaching for a sword that wasn’t there, couldn’t be there-

“Adora! Hi!”

Adora breathed out again. “Oh. Hey, Entrapta. How go your studies?”

The Princess of Dryl dropped from the rafters, landing on her feet. She was wearing her usual clothes, and it was probably impossible to style her hair for any amount of time – but, apparently as a gesture towards formality, she wasn’t wearing her mask. “I was learning a lot of fascinating things when I saw you. Are you okay?”

“Y…no,” Adora confessed. “This whole thing is just…overwhelming. Way worse than Princess Prom…although hopefully there’s not going to be any kidnapping this time. I don’t know, there’s just…too much going on.”

“Oh, well, then I have just the thing!”

Adora barely had a chance to make any noise at all before she disappeared into Entrapta’s seemingly limitless hair.

* * *

Adora blinked in the dim light as Entrapta’s hair…she tried to think of a better way to put it than “disgorged her” and failed. Eww. She had been spirited away to…

The room was a tiny hidey-hole, lit by a single chunk of First One technology that had been set into a clumsy frame and bolted to the ceiling. There was a small table and a single chair.

Adora wasn’t usually claustrophobic, but the tight confines were beginning to worry her a little. “I should really be at the party-”

“This’ll only take a few minutes,” said Entrapta softly, and Adora froze. This was Entrapta being serious. There was a faint clinking sound as the Princess of Dryl laid a small cloth bag on the table. “When I was a kid,” she said, “and I needed to get away from people for a bit, I’d use these gears. I’d sort them by size, and that’d help me focus. Did you wanna give it a try?”

While Adora had never sorted gears by size, she thought back to the weapons rack she’d had installed in her room…which held a variety of blades in a very strict order. Entrapta might have a point here.

The gears clattered against the table as Adora tipped them out of the bag and sat down. She’d just give it a few minutes, and then she’d be back at the party. She could spare a few minutes, right?

* * *

“Adora!” said Bow, his tone relieved. “Are you okay? You looked a bit stressed out last time I saw you, but I couldn’t get to you through the crowd, and then I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

“I’m fine, Bow. Entrapta just found me before you did.” Adora smiled. “She pulled me out for a quick talk, and I’m feeling a lot better already. It’s surprising how much we have in common, given that she’s a genius and I’ve, you know, always been better at the physical stuff.”

In one of Adora’s pockets, a cloth bag full of gears clinked faintly. Entrapta had insisted she take them.


	2. Experiment - Through Their Paces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Entrapta heard that a shapeshifter was involved, she dug into her research and hired them - just think what she could learn!

“You know, darling,” said Double Trouble from inside the detector chamber, “you only paid for so much of my time. This whole routine seems…extremely overplayed. Was there a shortage on lightning rods at the depot, perhaps?”

The glowing green eyes of the mask studied them for a moment, and Double Trouble suppressed a shiver. Then Entrapta’s head tilted quizzically. “I don’t need a lightning rod for this test. I don’t even think one would help.” She lifted a sheaf of notes in one coil of hair. “Would a lightning rod help? Hmm…No, the power supplied by a lightning rod isn’t consistent enough, and anyway, the electricity test isn’t until next week.” She thought for a moment. “It is nice that you’re showing interest, at least; so many people don’t!”

The shapeshifter’s claws tapped on the glass. “So did you have any requests, darling? My Catra is virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, of course, and little Flutterina has a solid record…”

“First, do someone really small! Is Flutterina as small as you can go, or can you shrink even further?”

Double Trouble’s tail twitched. With a grin, they said, “A challenge, then. You know, I’m not actually sure how far I can push it. This could be a learning experience for both of us, darling…”

* * *

“Okay,” said Double Trouble. They were wearing Flutterina’s face as they said it, but they’d managed to shave off at least six inches from her height. “Any further, and I can’t hold a form steady.” With a theatrical sigh, they added, “I shall clearly have to practice some more. Now, was there anyone else you had in mind?”

“Yeah! Now try someone really big! Scorpia, maybe?”

Of course. This wasn’t just a chance to make some money; this was a chance to _get paid for showing off_ , and to one of Etheria’s foremost sources of chaos as well. The only possible way for this to be further up Double Trouble’s alley would be to have it include all the bugs they could eat. “I can go larger than her, darling. How about Huntara?”

Three seconds later, they added, in a somewhat muffled tone, “Of course, Huntara might require a slightly larger chamber.”

Entrapta’s hair tendrils danced over the computer’s controls, and she added, “And…got it! Okay, you can come out now, if you’d like.”

* * *

Back in their normal form, and idly rubbing the various parts that, in Huntara form, had been pushed right up against the glass, Double Trouble joined Entrapta at the bank of monitors. “Did you find anything interesting, darling?”

“You bet!” Entrapta gestured to a screen that was displaying a selection of numbers that, to Double Trouble’s untrained eyes, could have meant literally anything. “Your mass changes as you transform, and the new thaumic detectors are working! There’s a surge in magical energy whenever you change, and I can even detect minor shifts in the background magic depending on what form you take – at least while you’re actively transforming. You’re converting the natural magic of Etheria into mass and back, just like how the EKS design did, but way more efficiently!”

Double Trouble knew where this was going. They’d heard of some of Entrapta’s greatest hits: self-repairing robots, for example, or that time she nearly broke the world. (To be fair, she was probably only the third most successful world-breaker just in Double Trouble’s contacts list. The last few years of the war had been weird.) “So what kind of weapon are you planning to build out of it?”

The princess’s forehead wrinkled. “I don’t know. Did you want one?”

Double Trouble did a double-take. “You’re not planning some sort of weapon? Then why are you spending so much money for this?”

“Because what you can do is _amazing!_ ” Entrapta’s motions were definitely getting a little mad-scientist for Double Trouble’s tastes, but hey, she paid well, and you couldn’t buy this kind of from-the-heart enthusiasm. “Your shapeshifting is so unique and I wanna find out how it works! Is it really true that nobody has done this kind of study before? Just think of how much they could have learned!”

“Now that you mention it…no.” The shapeshifter’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve never met anyone so interested in my talent for its own sake. What they can get me to _do_ with it, always, but…never just to find out how it works.”

“Does this mean we’re friends now?”

“I wouldn’t trust me if I were you, darling. People who trust me too much tend to regret it.” They smiled slyly. “But I don’t object to continuing to work as your research subject, at least for now…”


	3. Birthdays - Forgiveness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Entrapta and her friends celebrate her first birthday after the War.

“For the love of the moons, Adora,” groaned Glimmer, “are you trying to bankrupt me?” She grabbed ineffectually at the sconce in Adora’s grip. “Be more careful with the fixtures!”

Entrapta dropped from the rafters onto Emily’s back, plucked the sconce from Adora’s unresisting hand, and quickly stuck it back onto the wall. “There, see? Good as new!”

The sconce began to turn slowly to one side.

Glimmer made some incoherent noises of frustration, then breathed out heavily. “Thanks, Entrapta. You don’t have to do that, you know. This is your party; you should be enjoying yourself.”

“I am!” Entrapta twisted the sconce back into position; it began to tip over the other way. “Don’t you guys enjoy fixing stuff?”

They looked at each other, and then Adora said, “Not usually at parties.”

“Oh well, more for me then!” Entrapta produced a toolset from nowhere and began reattaching the sconce properly. “I hope Bertha’s doing okay outside.”

‘Bertha’ was the name Entrapta had given to the colossal mech she’d brought back from Beast Island. Glimmer turned to Adora. “Adora, could you pop out and check on Bertha – just for a sec?”

There was a brief pause, and then Adora nodded. “Okay, Glim. I’ll be back in a minute.”

As soon as Adora was gone, Glimmer’s shoulders slumped. “Entrapta, can I…have a quick word with you!”  
“Sure!” Entrapta could tell that _something_ was happening here, but she wasn’t quite sure what. “What did you want to talk about?”

“You remember when Adora and Bow went to Beast Island to get you?”

“You mean when they…” Entrapta’s voice trailed off. Beast Island was pretty far from her favourite thing to talk about.

“They disobeyed my orders to do that. I told them not to.” She released a breath. “And I was wrong. I’m really sorry, Entrapta.”

Entrapta took this information on board with the air of a sapper opening a bomb casing, and decided, exactly unlike a sapper opening a bomb casing, to deal with it another time. She had a lot of feelings about Beast Island already, and she was going to go ahead and handle them bit by bit, like slowly grinding gears,

* * *

Something was subtly wrong. It was a feeling like she was being watched, and with a quick scan of the area, Entrapta realised from where. Spotting two gleams in the darkness above, one gold, one blue, she quickly scaled the support beams. Distantly, she heard Glimmer groaning as another sconce fell off.

“Hi Catra! What are you doing up here?”

“I wanted to check in, but I didn’t think you’d want me at the party,” said Catra, not meeting Entrapta’s gaze. “Not after…”

“Not after Beast Island.”

Catra nodded. She still hadn’t looked Entrapta in the eye.

Entrapta’s hand hovered near her mask for a few moments, before she lowered it and breathed out. “Don’t worry about it.”

Catra eyed her curiously. “You’re not mad?”

Entrapta wobbled a hand – and a second, larger hand, made from hair – in an ambivalent kind of way. “I mean, I am a bit, but it all worked out, and I got to see a First One ship, and learned about the Heart of Etheria, and made friends with Bertha! Oh, and Micah got rescued too. So…” The princess shrugged, an extremely expansive gesture coming from her. “I don’t really see much point in holding a grudge about it? It happened, and some of it was bad, and some of it was good, and you did say you were sorry about the bits that were bad.” She fiddled briefly with her data recorder. “Five times, actually.”

“You always were a lot smarter than the rest of us,” said Catra quietly, not looking at her. “Not holding grudges…I wish I’d figured that one out myself.” She raised her head. “Wait, where _is_ Scorpia? It’s not like her to be this late.” She smiled, softly and sadly. “Gotta get the Super Pal Trio back together, right?”

“Right!”

* * *

A thunderous knock echoed through the room, and after a few moments, the door slowly toppled off its hinges.

Glimmer flinched. Entrapta could just about hear her mutter, “Moons above! Should I just have the whole castle replaced?”

There was a momentary pause, and then Scorpia moved through the door, dragging a fully loaded cart behind her. It _juuuust_ fit through the door, and at some point, the wheels had either been removed by something or had failed to take the weight. It was leaving a trail of cracked tiles, and with every foot it moved, Glimmer flinched again. The whole assemblage was draped in a grubby tarp, but in a move that perfectly traced out the line between touchingly sincere and jarringly absurd, someone – presumably Lonnie or Kyle – had carefully tied a length of bright red power cable in a big friendly bow around it.

“Uh…hi.” Scorpia rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. “Sorry I’m late, but getting this thing through the Whispering Woods was harder than I expected. Never was much of a navigator.”

Entrapta’s eyes were possibly the largest they’d ever been. “Hi, Scorpia! What is it?”

“It’s your birthday present! Happy birthday.”

Entrapta descended upon the cart. The cable fell away, followed by the tarp, and a chunk of scrap metal toppled onto the floor and broke some more tiles. The cart was piled high with bits and pieces – mostly the stark white and green of Horde Prime, but a few chunks of corroded Fright Zone engineering jutted out.

“Freshly salvaged from the Fright Zone,” said Scorpia proudly. “Since we’re demilitarising and getting rid of the crashed ships and trying to get, you know, things growing again, there’s a ton of metal around the place we don’t really need. I had a good old dig through it, with some help from Kyle – he’s actually a really good engineer now – and this is some of the best stuff.” She smiled and patted Entrapta on the “forearm” of one of her hair-limbs. “If you wanna have a look through it yourself, you’re welcome to come over any time.”

“I LOVE IT!” Entrapta’s hair was all over the place, like she was attempting to hug Scorpia five times at once. “I’m gonna get Bertha to take it back to Dryl, make sure I can have a good look through it with all my tools there! Bertha!”

The ground shook, and Glimmer looked like all of her internal organs had spontaneously changed places.

Bertha erupted through the wall in a shower of fragmented stone. The mech reached out and picked up the heaped pile of Horde scrap, before disappearing out the hole, heading for the road to Dryl. While the roads weren’t exactly safe – too many ex-Horde veterans had turned to banditry after the war – two-ton robots tended to have relatively uneventful journeys; people jumped out at them from behind rocks, then immediately headed home for a nice rest under the bed and maybe a change of underwear.

Glimmer collapsed to the floor and curled up in the foetal position.

Apparently not noticing, Scorpia beamed at Entrapta. “So how are you doing, Entrapta?”

“I’m doing great! Emily and Bertha are getting along, everyone’s being really nice, and it’s great to be with friends again.” She paused for a moment. “Although everyone wants apologise to me and it’s kind of making me sad? I wanna spend my birthday hanging out with my friends, not being told again and again how sorry they are about Beast Island, you know?”

Scorpia grinned. “Well, how about you and I do something fun – after the party, I mean? Look, they’re bringing out the cake!” She took another look. “I mean cakes!”

Adora and Bow were bringing out a table, struggling to hold it exactly level. For Adora’s birthday celebration, just a few days previously, they’d gone for quite a large cake, with some cupcakes to the side as a concession to Entrapta’s dietary habits. For today, there were no ‘concessions’: the entire table was covered with cupcakes, some of which had candles jutting out of them. Entrapta had always had a soft spot for candles; they reminded her of the beacon tower above Dryl.

As the traditional song rang out, Entrapta took a deep breath and swept across the table, candle flames dying as she moved.

Adora smiled at her and said, “Did you make a wish?”  
“You can’t ask her that, Adora!” Bow sounded scandalised. “If she tells us what she wished for, it won’t come true!”

_I wished that we could all just forgive each other. And ourselves._

“Oh, you guys know me. The usual stuff!”

“First One tech, I bet.” Adora picked up a plate. “Now who wants cupcakes?”

Entrapta accepted the first plate with a gentle smile. The War had been big and confusing and troublesome, and neither she nor her friends had made it out unscathed. All of them had been hurt. Most of them had hurt each other.

But most of them had made it this far, and everyone was beginning to heal.

At the very least, it was a start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By some weird coincidence I share a birthday with Entrapta, so this is a _doubly_ special occasion. (There's no need to get me anything; kudos and comments will do nicely! :P)


	4. AU - In the Not Too Distant Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is extraordinarily stupid but we're doing this anyway.

_Next Sunday, AD:_

The hexfield thrummed to life, and their experimental subject stared back at them: Adora Carrero, formerly of the Gizmonic Institute, clad in a white and red jumpsuit and accompanied by her robot friends: Bow T. Robot and Glimmer Servo.

“You feeling OK, Hordak?” she said, eyebrow raised. “I mean, you’re not looking well. So pale, so skeletal – oh, sorry.”

“Things proceed satisfactorily,” rumbled Hordak, narrowing his eyes. “Entrapta, bring in your creation for the invention exchange.”

Entrapta rubbed her hands and her hair together. “You’ve heard of the Internet of Things? Well, I’d like to introduce you to the Internet of Nets.”

A complicated mass of netting descended from the ceiling.

“The majority of oceanic pollution comes from plastic netting, and while some people would see that as a terrible thing, we’re looking on the bright side! All of these nets are constructed from biodegradable plastics and contain fibre-optic cables, small transmitters, and miniature solar panels; they essentially render all pre-existing telecommunications systems obsolete, and as an additional bonus, they can also catch fish!”

Imp made a furious noise as he got snarled in part of it.

“The Internet of Nets,” continued Entrapta, untangling him, “is entirely compatible with both Alexa and Google Home, and can also be used to protect your garden from birds or play wacky pranks on your neighbours. Just think of the potential!”

Hordak gestured to the screen. “And what have you concocted, Carrero?”

Adora gestured to the counter, which was struggling to hold up a machine that had absolutely earned the word _contraption_ , and said, “Well, at this end, Glimmer had an idea and Bow made it work. Presenting: the Abramifier.”

Glimmer shifted in front of the strange assemblage of pipes and hoppers and adopted the manner of a late-night infomercial presenter. “Yes, that’s right, the Abramifier, enabling you – yes, you – to imitate the otherwise inimitable directorial style of JJ Abrams. Take any movie or TV show, from the most brilliant production of indie filmmaking to the most godawful episode of _Star Trek: Voyager_ , and put it in this end here. We’ll be using _Transformers: Age of Extinction_ as our test subject today, on the grounds that no matter what we do to it, it’s not gonna get any worse.”

Bow inserted a large reel of 35mm film.

“As it proceeds through the machinery,” continued Glimmer, “the Transition Grinder will chop out all transitional scenes and shave ten to twenty seconds off the beginnings and ends of all other scenes.” The device made a loud whirring noise. “Then, the Mystery Matryoshka will insert a bunch of pointless mystery boxes which contain either absolutely nothing or another, less interesting mystery box.” Multiple thuds. “Now, the Universal Minimiser will reduce the scale and scope of any science fiction element; this is a delicate process, as you would expect.” The machine made a noise like a hairdryer. “We left a copy of _Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets_ in a little too long during preliminary testing and by the end of it you could have fit the entire setting in JJ’s dining room. And at the end of the procedure, we have…”

She plucked the reel out of the machine.

“ _Transformers: Age of Extinction_ , as directed by JJ Abrams! It’s still loud, confusing, vaguely racist and stupid, but now the female characters are a little more relevant and you can barely see anything behind the lensflare. What do you think?”

“I think you had better brace yourself, Carrero,” hissed Hordak. “I will not spoil the surprise of your coming ordeal, but you may rest assured, it is unlike anything you have endured before.”

The viewscreen shut down, and Hordak turned to his assistant. “Has the experiment for today been dispatched, Entrapta?”

“I’ve sent up…” Entrapta checked the records. “ _My Dinner with Andre_.”

Hordak boggled for a moment, and said, coldly, “I had thought we had selected _Transmorphers_ for today?”

“Yeah, but I gave it a test watch. It had robots. It can’t be that bad if it had robots!” Entrapta seemed scandalised by the thought. “So I sent up a movie without any robots instead. Just people talking. Who’d want to watch that?”

“It is considered a classic film, Entrapta!”

“A classic film without robots doesn’t deserve the title!” she proclaimed, striking a dramatic pose.

Hordak drew himself up to his full height, visibly seething-

Imp smacked him on the back of the head and made a noise of aggravation.

“Perhaps,” said Hordak, as if reading the words off cue cards, “you are correct. However, I must insist that we send them _Transmorphers_ next.” He smiled coldly. “After all, our task is to find a _single_ movie that can achieve our ends. Simply wearing them down is a different objective. Let us consider it…a break for them.”


	5. Free Day - Letters to Myself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the world of _Forged in Light and Shadow_ , one of the Entraptas gets down her thoughts on their separation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK, this is going to take a bit of explaining.
> 
> In my currently-on-hiatus robot AU fic, _Forged in Light and Shadow_ , Entrapta has uploaded her consciousness to a synthetic body - or, more accurately, two, dubbed Red and Blue. In chapters I haven't actually written yet and probably won't get to for a while because season 4 came out during a very busy week for me and then I got distracted by other projects, the two will get separated, with Red ending up in Canon!Entrapta's kind of circumstances and Blue staying with the Rebellion - and the two would then grow more distinct over time.
> 
> (That makes this technically a spoiler for _Forged in Light and Shadow_ , but given that _FiLaS_ was not exactly drawing huge numbers when I got distracted, I think people can most likely forgive me.)

Dear Me,

I guess that’s not an entirely accurate way of putting it. We’ve been a _we_ , rather than an _I_ , for a year now, haven’t we? Since we stopped plugging in every evening to make sure we stayed synced up.

Which I guess makes this a birthday? A birthday for Entrapta the _us_ , rather than Entrapta the _me_. Probably shouldn’t put it like that to the others, though – Adora had such a hard time understanding birthdays in general that I don’t want to confuse her by making it more complicated.

This got weird. Let me start over.

Dear sister,

I’ve been wondering whether “imperfection” is the best way to think about it. I know we needed it to start with, because we were so sure we were imperfect – but were we? I’m not sure perfection is even a thing, now. It would stand to reason that a perfect Entrapta would be midway between us, but that doesn’t sound perfect – I don’t want to lose how I feel about my friends at this end, and I know you wouldn’t want to lose your own, as they got averaged out into nothing much.

But why call it imperfection if there’s no perfection for it to be different from? Shouldn’t we be calling it just…difference? We’re different from each other; we’re both different from Adora and Glimmer and Bow and all the others. And those differences are really interesting!

This got weird again. Let me start over.

Dear Red,

I miss you. Everyone around here tries so hard – Bow likes to talk about technology, and Adora knows what it’s like to leave part of yourself behind – but they’ve never really meshed with me like you did; who could have understood me better than another me – and vice versa, of course?

…I don’t know if we’d understand each other like that now. We’re still, statistically, about 96% the same, but…that 4% is big.

Right after we were separated, after the Fright Zone, while I still thought you’d been destroyed, our skiff got shot down. Me, Netossa and Perfuma had to make our way back to Brightmoon on foot.

We found a village the Horde had destroyed. I took off my arm – you remember, the replacement I got after Adora came visiting and we lost control of the castle? I took it off, and I made sure it got rigged up to someone who lost his arm in the attack.

I wish I could show you those memories without ruining the experiment. I wish you could feel what I felt – that moment when I realised I couldn’t just focus on my experiments, not at a time like this.

Getting a good look at what you’d been ignoring makes it hard to keep ignoring it.

So now I’m trying to figure out how to care about people – really care about them, I mean, not just friends but everyone. I’m still not very good at it. I’ve asked Bow to tell me when I’m failing. (Bow really isn’t helping with the imperfection thing; if he has a flaw, it’s that he cares too much, and even then that seems to make him really strong – and he’s smart about things I didn’t even know it was possible to be smart about.)

Trying to care this much is weird, but it’s exhilarating too. I don’t know if I could do what you do.

This got weird again. I don’t know if starting over is going to help.

I can’t wait for this stupid war to be over. I want to just talk to you. I want to get to know, really get to know, the sister I now suddenly have, who used to just be me and is now someone else.

Good luck with your lab partner.

I really do miss you.

\- Blue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was my stuff for Entrapta Week 2020. Thankyou for your views, comments and kudos throughout, neurodiversity forever, look forward to more stuff for my other projects any month now.


End file.
